Tracy Thomas and Donat Plenter, Co-CEOs of DataAbacus, Inc., had a great idea for a unique web-based service— a free resource center where home buyers explore real estate and financing opportunities in an anonymous, safe and commitment-free environment.

With over 40 years of combined experience in residential real estate and finance, Thomas and Plenter had the passion and industry expertise to develop the extensive requirements of the offering, but they had zero experience when it came to web application development. And their startup budget wasn’t adequate to hire a development team, so they began searching for other ways to achieve their dream.

Thomas and Plenter discovered the Caspio platform with its online database and application builder and they realized that they may be able to build their app on their own. They started right away and soon using the point-and-click tools, they were able to create a variety of applications. When the work was completed the Homazooma team was very pleased to have met or exceeded all its objectives.

Unlike other services, Homazooma.com keeps home buyers anonymous, which puts them in control of the process. The apps are primarily for real estate and financial analysis and include many web forms, some quite lengthy and complex, and reports with extensive number crunching. One of the applications, a “Home Affordability Analysis” calculator, takes 13 factors into consideration for performing multiple calculations that give users a comprehensive picture of the type of home they can afford.

Homazooma.com also attracts real estate and mortgage professionals who can generate anonymous reports and analysis for their clients to better qualify them and more accurately serve their needs. Additional tools and capabilities are being added on a regular basis.

“Caspio has created the ultimate database design solution, having achieved the almost impossible,” says Plenter, “It allows us to create sophisticated applications very quickly and without programming skills, yet is able to support complex calculations and workflow specific to our industry.”

Caspio’s tools weren’t the only user-friendly aspect of Thomas and Plenter’s experience with Caspio — its customer support, too, made a sizable difference in the success of their undertaking. They were able to reach technical support right away whenever they needed help, and they were guided every step of the way as they worked out the kinks in their apps.

“We would never have been able to accomplish what we have without the tremendous patience and support of the staff at Caspio,” says Thomas. “No question.”

Soon after the launch, Homazooma.com started getting the attention of the media for its innovative services.

Now that the company is attracting market awareness and is hiring new employees, Thomas and Plenter are using a Caspio-powered application to source new ideas from users and their growing team. Every month they create and release new features and additions to their service.

We congratulate the Homazooma team and wish them continued success. Do you have a success story to share? Tell us about it.